Public program in Timisoara Romania on June 28th.

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Bhagavatam class in Romania (English only).

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New Vrindaban’s 8^th Annual 24 Hour Kirtan

By Lilasuka dasi

It was only the third hour into the 8^th annual summer 24 hour kirtan in N.V., on Saturday June 21, 2014, when the kid kirtaniyers jumped right in. Well “trained up” by their parents, each of the mostly third generation children took their turn expertly leading their few minutes of kirtan, and the crowd eagerly showed their appreciation and amazement with exuberant cheers.

Just a couple of hours after that, some of New Vrindaban’s own finest guitar and harmonium players lead their sweet kirtans, with soft flute accompaniment.

Bhaktilata leads evening kirtan.

The participants had a lot to say about the different moods and tunes of the day and night:

A visitor remarked: “The energy from the different kirtan leaders really drives each special kirtan and makes it all very inspiring.”

With a faraway look in her eye, one young lady said, “Bhakti Caru Swami’s purity shines through in his slow and melodious kirtan, and uplifts me.”

One New Vrindaban resident surprised herself: “Although I absolutely love the 24 hour kirtans, I usually can’t stay up very late, but, for some reason, this time I was able to stay a lot longer. And then, even when I got home, I just turned the radio to 88.0, the local NV channel, and basically listened to the kirtan all night.”

Manu, one of the main organizers of the 24 hour kirtan schedule, commented, “24 hour kirtan – very engaging and inspiring. I’ve been doing administrative, organizational work most of the time this weekend. But at 2 a.m. Saturday morning, I was able to sit and just be in the kirtan. Just at the time when you think you have nothing left to give, the holy name engages you. It’s not about the musicality or the crowd, but the power of the holy name.”

Lakshman prabhu, a cook at the restaurant exclaimed: “The first meal on Saturday, we cooked for 250 but there were more than 500 people who came – quite a bit more than we thought. That’s a good challenge to face!”

One visitor, who sat mostly in one spot for much of the 24 hours, often chanting with closed eyes, and who had a hard time putting his intense kirtan experience into words, did finally comment, “What’s so special about this kirtan is the atmosphere of this big, beautiful Radha Vrindaban Chandra temple.”

Agnideva das gets the crowd dancing.

Ganga das from Florida agreed with that and added, “Any association of devotees is amazing, and this is one of the best occasions for association available. It’s like charging your batteries, especially when you live outside a temple like I do. This association is so important. And everyone chanting together creates a very special energy.”

Gita dasi was there with her husband, Dhruva from Alachua. Gita’s favorite part of the kirtan was letting her baby dance in the kirtan. Also, her favorite singers were singing from midnite to 2 a.m., and although she was tired and couldn’t imagine staying up another minute, the enchanting, soft singing of the early morning kirtaniyers filled her soul with spiritual energy.

A couple from the city of Cincinnati, Ohio offered this comment: “When we come here from our small home town temple, I love taking this wonderful energy home with me, and it stays with me for a long time.”

Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra love to hear Their devotees chanting.

21 june Sringar Aarti Darshan
Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari, Juhu

Srila Prabhupada on a morning walk to the original New Vrindaban farmhouse, July 1976.

Srila Prabhupada Repeats His “Simple Living, High Thinking” Message for a New Vrindaban Resident – August 1974.

From a series of letters written by Srila Prabhupada outlining his vision for New Vrindaban.

Thanks to Vanipedia for the source material.

———————————————————————-

August 19, 1974

New Vrindaban

My dear Madhukara das,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 25th 1974 and thank you very much for your nice sentiments. Just as you were pleased that I was able to visit New Vrindaban, so did I also enjoy my visit to New Vrindaban. You are producing nice vegetables from the earth and ample supply of milk from the cows so what more do you want? Just chant Hare Krishna and everything will be alright.

Regarding the two twenty dollar checks that you had sent previously. It has not been recorded because of the change of secretaries. I suggest that you contact your bank whether or not the checks have been deposited and you can inform me.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/bs

On the hundredth anniversary of the disappearance day of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, this brand new video about the TOVP project, which was so dear to Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur has been released. Many of prominent leaders in ISKCON have spoken very well to encourage participation from all members of ISKCON society. This video was produced by a young devotee, resident of Sridham Mayapur, as a seva for the new Sri Mayapur Chandradoya Mandir. A video by Jaganath Kirtan Das.

(An edited version of this article appeared in the Time of India's Speaking Tree column with the title Yatra of love)

Today some of us will see on the roads in our cities a massive procession that we recognize as a familiar festival – the Ratha Yatra Utsav, an annual festival that dates back to centuries, even millennia. Back in those days, it was more for the residents of Odisha, Bengal and some nearby states. But today it is much more – it’s a global cultural phenomenon. It’s celebrated in over 100 countries and 500 cities, from Boston to Belfast to Brisbane; and from Dublin to Dubai to Dnepropetrovsk. In fact, New York boasts of its own annual Ratha Yatra for twenty-six years. Breaking across geographical and cultural boundaries, Lord Jagannatha's Ratha Yatra demonstrates the universality of spiritual love.

Let’s explore what this ancient festival offers to modern minds the world over as they, like us, seek to evolve as better beings.

The Face of the Mystery of Indian Spirituality

The Ratha-Yatra expands divine love in circles of increasing grace.

Firstly, it expands divine grace from the sacred space of the temple to the rest of the city. The Lord riding atop the majestic chariot offers the blessing of his darshan to one and all – even those who do not come to the temple. The sway of the magnificent chariots; the embellishments with many meaningful motifs; the beauty of the triune Divinities – Jagannatha with his brother Baladava and sister Subhadra; the symphony of musical eulogies by skilled singers; and the heartfelt cries of “Jaya Jagannatha” by thousands of assembled worshipers – all such potent devotional stimuli at the Ratha-Yatra kindle life-transforming spiritual experiences.

Secondly, the globalization of Ratha Yatra expands the grace beyond Jagannatha Puri and even India. In 1968, Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON’s founder, inspired the first non-Indian Ratha Yatra in San Francisco, which also hosted Jagannatha’s first Western temple. Since then, this pan-Indian festival has assumed a trans-national proportion. Indeed, Jagannatha has become a charming face of the beauty and mystery of Indian spirituality.

The Ecstatic Agony

Much of the mystery of Jagannatha centers on his face. He is said to be non-different from Krishna, yet he looks much different. The difference in their appearances is testimony to the transformational power of love.

The bhakti tradition holds that emotions are eternal – and are gateways to the eternal. Approaching the Absolute Truth requires not the eradication of emotion, but their elevation. In fact, life’s crowning emotion, love, is the heart of the life eternal – relationships between the Lord and the devotee.

Jagannatha is Krishna enraptured by the spell of love – love of his topmost devotees, the gopis of Vrindavana, who were afflicted with the ecstatic agony of separation from him.

Ecstatic agony? The mystery deepens and sweetens.

Love is akin to a fire. If the fire is small, a gust of wind extinguishes it. But if the fire is large, the same wind expands it. Similarly, when devotion is tender, akin to a small fire, separation from the Lord, being like the wind, extinguishes it. But if the flame of devotion is strong, the wind of separation intensifies it, evoking ecstatic longing for the Lord with every heartbeat. Such was the ecstatic agony of the Vraja-gopis when Krishna departed from Vrindavana.

While in Dwarka, Krishna heard about their love-afflicted plight. In amazement, his mouth fell open, his eyes became large, and his limbs became motionless and withdrew into themselves just as his consciousness withdrew from everything else to focus on his devotees. And Krishna became Jagannatha.

The celestial sage Narada beheld this extraordinary form. Becoming blissful, he begged that the Lord bless everyone with that divine darshan. His desire was fulfilled through a later king Indradyumna, whose blooper turned out be a serendipity. The king had assigned the task of fashioning the Deity of the Lord to an expert artisan. The artisan asked for total seclusion for twenty-one days as he went about the task, warning that if he were interrupted, he would leave. The king kept his distance for fourteen days, being heartened by the sounds of the artisan at work. But when the sounds stopped completely with no sign of recommencing, the anxious king burst into the workshop. True to his threat, the artisan had departed, leaving the work half-done. The king was dismayed till came the revelation that the incomplete-looking forms were devotionally complete – they manifested perfectly the Lord’s ecstatic feeling of incompleteness in separation from his devotees.

The Immortalization of an Invitation

Just as the form of Jagannatha has a special story behind it, so does his chariot festival. Many Deities go out in processions to bestow grace on onlookers, but Jagannatha goes out on an additional special mission. After Krishna left Vrindavan, the Vraja-gopis met him many decades later in Kurukshsetra where the devout from far and wide had congregated on the occasion of a solar eclipse. This brief re-union inflamed within the gopis a fervent longing for lasting re-union in the pastoral paradise of Vrindavana – the original and inimitable setting for their lila. They envisioned taking Krishna back to Vrindavana on a chariot – drawn not by horses, but by love of their hearts and the labor of their hands. Their sacred longing is immortalized in the Ratha-Yatra, wherein the starting point represents Kurukshetra and the ending point represents Vrindavana. When we pull the Lord’s chariot, we assist the gopis in their labor of love. By thus assisting those enriched with bhakti, our hearts become enriched with bhakti. By our loving pulls, we not only take Jagannatha back to Vrindavana, but also invite him back into our heart.

In summary, the Ratha Yatra manifests an expansion of divine love from the temple to the rest of the city, and indeed the whole world. And it offers us an opportunity to elevate our devotional love from separation to union, from disconnection with the divine to re-connection.

Listen audio...

This talk is a part of the "Fascinating Mahabharata Characters" series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

Things are Dismal?

Two kinds of people smile — fools and the wise. Unfortunately, I am a fool trying to become wise. That’s where it becomes difficult to smile.

So why not remain a fool?

Because the smile of a fool is shallow. I want the smile of the wise, I have been captivated by its depth and profundity. It is a whole different smile. It makes the fool’s smile seem like a drugged stupor.

Everything in the fool’s world annoys me. It shouldn’t be that way. It should inspire me, or at least I should be indifferent to it. And sometimes I come close to that level of vision, but right now I am just thinking about how annoying the fool’s world is.

Why annoying?

Fake.

All the smiles are fake. Everything is so fake, and it just keeps getting faker as time goes by. 400 years ago “fake” meant sitting in a meadow with a lover and looking at the clouds. Today “fake” means hunting prey in a nightclub at 3am. The fake of 400 years ago is so much less stressful and exhausting than the fake of today.

I guess I just miss the fake of my previous lifetimes. I miss going to sleep a little after the Sun went down. I miss eating good food that tasted unique. I miss eating things that people I actually know prepared, not that got mass produced in some awful mechanized factory and shipped in on a boat. I miss knowing the neighbors names. I miss hanging out outside. I miss working with real things instead of electronic blips. I miss hearing musicians play in the center of town, instead of having iTunes randomize my 5,000 mp3s. I miss seeing dramas, unique theater, instead of watching crap — absolute crap — on television.

I mean, the fake world of today is just… dismal. And the most annoying, fakest part of if, is that we think its all the rage.

What to do? Write a blog on a new text editor. Sigh. Eat some dark chocolate. Hope for a better meditation tomorrow morning, because todays sucked.

Nah, there is a better way to handle these blues. I actually realized something important. I realized that its impossible to be happy. And in the next instant I realized the reason… the reason is because we are happiness. While we are looking for happiness we have to ignore that we are happiness. Looking for something around us, we have to be blind to the fact that it is within us. Now, how do we realize that we are happiness? We realize that we are not recipients of happiness, we are fountains of it. When we try to be a source of happiness for others, that is when we feel happy — and all the fakeness of the world (past or present) disappears and the whole world becomes real and we smile the smile of the wise.

That is bhakti-yoga at stage 1: learning to change our perspective from trying to receive happiness to trying to give it.

Hari bol.

Fresh Perspectives on Life, Universe & Everything
Open discussions hosted by Bal Gopal who has had over 10 years experience in the Bhakti-Yoga practise. Each week we will be looking at a new topic through the broad lens of Bhakti. Leave feeling nourished, intrigued & with a new vision on life. 6pm. Come hungry. Includes dinner. $10/$5 students.

Upcoming topics:
28 July Transforming lust into love
4 August Peace in the city

The end of the Festival of Fiji was celebrated in Lautoka. Devotees stayed in and around the original temple of Fiji, Sri Krsna Kaliya Mandir. Now there are also alters for Gaura Nitai and Radha Govinda. 

Kadamba Kanana Swami spent a few days in London (21-26 June). On Sunday (22 June), he presented the morning Caitanya Caritamrta lecture at Bhaktivedanta Manor which was followed by Krishna Kirtan Das receiving second initiation. On Thursday, Maharaj travelled to Amsterdam and continues with his summer preaching tour. 

KKS_UK_Manor_22 June 2014_CC 8.63-66

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